Are you prepared? Trying to be more self sufficient

Sorry, must have gotten lost from EngineerWorld. I know I get into the weeds on crap most people don't care about, lol.

On jerky-making, you're right: it does depend on your environment. I don't know how to find it, but Alton Brown did a good episode on beef jerky, and if I recall he used a cool dry method instead of the oven.

 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats/episodes/urban-preservation-ii-the-jerky

A box, some air filters and a window fan.

 

My insurance prefers 90 days so I’m lucky there. Seems like I’m at CVS once or twice a week anyway. I’ve done some of what you’re saying at it works. Both of us are trying to bank meds but we do rotate them always using oldest first

 

Incorrect. Meat CAN and IS waterbathed. done all over the world. The amish do it here. I have done it. Not hard - just takes time.

 

At least you're not arguing about physics, but ... https://extension.psu.edu/lets-preserve-drying-fruits-and-vegetables-dehydration

so yes, you're basically making an oven, but not a very hot one, that allows moisture to escape. (Above link is for veg, but yes, meat dehydration works the same way too).

Here's USDA. https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/meat-fish/jerky

Since we were talking about 'a lot of meat after power loss', fan dehydration might be out of the picture. Hence solar heating.

 

i think USDA sticks their nose into some stuff to be "safe" but yeah during depression people did stuff to survive.

Heres a video. I would be a little more picky on lids and such. But can lids be reused? Yes...the rings arent as important but my wife wouldnt use a rusty looking ring.

 

Well golly thanks for the lesson in food dehydration.

 

Like eating the tuna fish at Subway.

Just cause you can, don't mean you should.

https://youtu.be/XbNgt8jh9io

 

Yep I was going by usda for a no go on water bath for meats. She uses their guidelines for most all canning

 

So, 4 hours boiling vs. 30-40 minutes in a pressure canner.

All else being equal, I'd use the pressure canner as that would be a lot more efficient. Just like how I use an electric pressure cooker instead of cooking stuff on the stovetop for hours and hours.

It's always good to learn something though, thanks for sharing.

 

Yep kinda my thoughts..id just pressure can and not worry about it. But in a true teowawki SHTF scenario it would be good to know

 

All this rain my water system is full so 600 gallons available

 

The two things that concern me the most are people and electricity.
I know from the inside that our electrical grid is a resilient and robust wonder of the world. The US has an AMAZING electrical grid. Best one anywhere on the planet - and it is frail. It wouldn't take much to create a cascading outage that does critical damage to components that take a long time to replace and come from Germany or France in many cases. Eastern states at risk of hurricanes. Western states at risk of wildfires. And all states at risk of kinetic terrorism or cyber terrorism. CISA, the FBI, and Dept of Homeland have been pushing out warnings an statements that there are foreign actors currently working on attacking our critical infrastructure and inserting code like a electronic sleeper cell that they can activate at a time and place of their choosing. Our US Cyber-Security is strong but it has to be strong 10,000 times a day every day. the foreign actors only have to be stronger once. It's a numbers game.

Pile on top of that people and their cushy dependence on electricity. Lets not talk about the frail, elderly, sick, weak, and dying. Those people that need electricity to live out of medical necessity are less my worry. It's the young that need their dopamine hit from social media, that haven't suffered through a summer without electricity. Statistics show that when temps rise, so does violent crime. You can have a generator, solar panels, batteries, etc.... But you can't have enough to keep the power on for your city and all of those electrically displaced people are going to start looking for a place to go and something to do. When the supply f illegal drugs starts to wear off and people hit a dry streak the DT's kick in and all of the sudden you have Betty Ford's worst nightmare looking for any kind of relief.

It's this psuedo-neo-social media zombie created by the lack of electricity that concerns me. See the tag line in my signature. I didn't come up with that in 2020. That has been my sig line in every forum since 2008 when we rode through Hurricane Ike. And I have seen how the more anamalistic side of society live and treat each other under optimal conditions during the time I lived in Greenspoint (Gunspoint) Houston.

 

I hear ya.

It's so irritating that the electric companies continue to make solar so difficult to be a backup system. I'd like to be able to offset my electric usage, and when/if the grid goes down disconnect and be standalone.

So many solar systems just shut down when the grid goes down, it simply isn't necessary. Backfeeding the grid when linemen are working is dangerous - but rather than shutting the local unit down, the technology exits to simply isolate it instead.

 

You can if you have a battery system in place. The solar panels need a place to dump electricity that isn't consumed immediately in the house. The batteries (if a big enough system) usually give them that.

But my quandry above isn't the power. Let's say you got batteries and your solar system is running your whole home. Now you have an advertising banner on your roof and a humming air conditioner that beckons those less fortunate to your abode. And I know the typical prepper trope is "I'll shoot-em all" but trust me, you don't have enough stockpiled for that problem. And what happens when you move from a world without rule of law and back into one that wants to judge you based on the laws and conditions of good times for what you did during the dark times.

How do we live with and blend into the new population of roamers looking for a way to cope with a reality they were not prepared for, all while maintaining some semblance of civility and keeping key electrical items like radios and flashlights powered. There needs to be a mental shift. We need to mentally shift and get ready to assume a new role and government really needs to do a better job of hardening our country by helping people see that preparedness is everyone's responsibility.

 

I'm not in the "shoot em all" camp. I have a very small solar power system, its primary use right now is holiday lighting. I can charge flashlights and other battery powered devices easily. I'd love to have enough solar generation capacity to offset some of my usage, but the cost of a battery system at this point is prohibitive. My understanding of the current state of regulatory restrictions is that most all grid tie systems sychonize to the grid, and simply shut off in a grid down situation.

IMHO there would be a lot more incentive for people to have a few hundred watts of solar on the roof if that was not the case. If more people can charge their phone, flashlights, and CPAP machine batteries, we can push the panic after an event out a few weeks.

 

I thought hard about whole home solar with storage but backed off the idea for the very reason you mentioned. My alternative is small solar just providing enough for us to use via solar power banks, solar lights for inside the house and security outside. It’s not nearly as practical but hopefully less visible and enticing to others. We’d be hot in the summer but can sleep in the basement. Better hot than over run by people

 

You're allowed to use your home solar for backup power, but most people opt for grid-tied for both net metering and cheaper install. You need more equipment to make the backup power work:

Grid tied:
Solar panels ($$)
Two way meter

Minimal backup power:
Solar panels ($)
Charge controller* ($)
Batteries ($)
Inverter* ($)
Sub-panel fed from inverter (feeds dedicated backup power circuits, likely not entire house)
*Can also be a combined inverter charger, connected to mains power, batteries, and solar panels. In fact, you can do this setup without solar, they just add to your time / capability when the power is out.

Grid tied with backup power:
Solar panels ($$)
Two way meter
Automatic transfer switch to prevent back feeding grid ($)
Batteries ($$-$$$)
Charge controller / inverter ($$)

 

Option 2a) Truck camping setup, 200W on the roof of the shell and a 300ah lithium bank. Enough to charge devices and power the freezer. Also sees use when we're offgrid camping. Wayyy cheaper than any grid tied setup.

 

Great thread Chris! I think everyone can learn from the wisdom of others. As many here know, society will break down completely within three days of a Grid failure. As John mentioned there are many publications with tons of good info. The real chore is taking the time to read and understand them and actually apply the skills. Thanks for doing this, and as I always say... I learn everyday, and I'm afraid of the guy who knows it all